Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met President
Shimon Peres and asked him for a two-week extension in which to put together a
coalition of parties and form a new government, and
received the extension.

If Netanyahu fails to cobble together a
coalition within a fortnight, however, he will be in serious trouble. Peres
could decide to task someone else with creating a coalition, or new elections
could be called.

We are, therefore, entering the
"money time" of coalition crafting.

There is anger and a feeling of vindication in the BayitYehudi party, following
reports in at least two major news sources that Likud/YisraelBeytenu has promised YeshAtid to tear down Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria if it joins a coalition without BayitYehudi.

Together with reports that Likud made
contradictory overtures to BayitYehudi,
they portray Netanyahu in an unflattering light and are no cause for pride, for
supporters of Likud / YisraelBeytenu.

MK Orit Strook said:
"It is very sad that Likud continues to make every effort to establish the
Livni-Abu Mazen government
instead of establishing the social government for the people of Israel, in line with the way the public voted." (Netanyahu systematically betrays the Zionist charter of
the Likud party and brings political enemies into his government. But the
saddest part of the story is that the party apparatus and membership allow him
to conduct this shameful treachery of Jewish national aspiration!)

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican
from Kentucky, spoke about his trip to Israel and how much he enjoyed being
there. He told the crowd how he sang Hebrew songs together with a group
of rabbis at the Western Wall, even though he had no idea what the words meant.
However, the statement that received thunderous applause was, “It is
not our job to tell Israelis where they can or cannot build."(It is
nobody’sbusiness - Israel has historic and legal rights to all
Jewish ancestral land, Eretz-Israel, known as the Palestinian Mandate!)

The four Syrian mortar shells
exploding on the Israeli side of the Golan on Saturday, March 2, flashed a
signal to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the moment is at hand
to step in and decide how to dispose of the expanse of southern Syrian
bordering on northern Israel. The collapse of Bashar Assad’s defense lines on
the Israeli and Jordanian borders has left a large Syrian expanse of no-man’s
land and generated a new strategic situation of major importance for both
Israel and Jordan. There is still time to pre-empt developments that would be
detrimental to Israel’s security. (The fact is that
thousand of dunams of Jewish land, purchased by the Jewish Agency since the
Leage of Nations allocated as Jewish land, Eretz-Israel, are still occupied by
Syria. It is time to reclaim our land!)

Food for Thoughtby Steven Shamrak

In the age of a
current fake political correctness and international anti-Israel smear campaign
confusion and many unresolved problems have been created about the question -
Who is a Jew? Not long ago, most of those Jews who married out denounced their
Judaism. They and their children were hiding their ‘shameful’ Jewish origin - their
Jewishness. At the same time there were not many courageous gentiles who would
be interested to become a “righteous convert”! Under the Jewish law marriage is
not a legitimate reason for conversion to Judaism. Conversion must have a
spiritual component - a need to “return”!

In attempt to restore its relationship with Turkey, Israel sent messages to Ankara over the last few weeks
that it is interested in creating a more “positive dynamic” in its badly
strained relationship with Turkey so the two countries
can work together to further common interests. The messages were sent prior to
John Kerry’s maiden trip abroad as US secretary of state, a
trip that will take him to nine countries in 10 days, including Turkey. Response from Turkish
Prime Minister TayyipErdogan
was prompt and clear - at the Vienna forum of the
Alliance of Civilizations, a UN forum for West-Islam dialogue. He called Zionism a
"crime against humanity" likening it with anti-Semitism, fascism, and
Islamophobia. (The saddest part of this story is that he was
not kicked out from this so-called “Alliance of Civilizations”. It would be
more appropriate to call it “Alliance of International anti-Semites” - it has
no moral integrity!)

Thirteen years ago, researchers at the United StatesHolocaustMemorialMuseum began the grim task of
documenting all the ghettos, slave labor sites, concentration camps and killing
factories that the Nazis set up throughout Europe. The researchers have cataloged
some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas
from France to Russia and Germanyitself,
during Hitler’s reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945.

PA Students do not Want to Hear about Peace

Scores
of violent Arab students forced the British Consul General, Sir Vincent Fean,
to make a hasty departure from a university in Ramallah, where he came to
deliver a lecture on Britain's policy in the Middle East and the prospects for
peace. A consulate official confirmed that Fean was unable to deliver his
prepared address due to the riots. In February 2000, Arab protesters at Bir
Zeit threw stones at then visiting French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin,
demanding he leave the university over a speech he delivered at Tel Aviv
University in which he called Hizbullah a terrorist organization.

For
the first time in many years, voices in the US administration were criticizing
the Israeli defense forces for under-reacting and, in this case, also
underestimating the chemical weapons threat emanating from Syria and neglecting
to pursue counter-measures. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak heard when he
met US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon that intelligence
estimates confirmed for the first time by an American official that Hezbollah
has been able to procure a quantity of chemical weapons from Syria. (Israel is criticized when it acts and when it does
nothing!)

Must the West Help Islamic Terrorists in Syria?

The
Islamist Martyrs of Yarmouk command kidnapped 21 UN observers close to the
Golan village of Jamla near Israel. So-called rebels demand the withdrawal of
Assad regime units from the village: “If no withdrawal is made within 24 hours,
we will treat the 20 hostages as prisoners.” (The UN
observers offered no resistence to terrorists - greate security for Israel! Islamists
tried to use UN observers as a human shields, violating international laws. Help
- not condemnation - is still flowing to the terrorists even from democratic
countries. The same democracies have been supporting the PA terrorists in their
objective to destroy Israel!)

During his visit to Cairo the US
Secretary of State John Kerry talked at length to Egyptian President Morsi
about Egypt’s calamitous economic straits, relations with Israel,
democratization and essential reforms. Morsi nodded politely but was completely
wrapped up in the ongoing plan he and the Muslim Brotherhood had hatched for
Islamizing Egypt and seizing 100 percent of parliament in the next election - April
or June. (Hundred million of the US taxpayer dollars
are given to support this endeavor!)

PA Unity is a Joke

As unity talks failed, the Palestinian Authority
security forces arrested 66 Hamas supporters in the West Bank during the month
of February. Hamas said that among those arrested were 32
former prisoners (held by Israel), three university students, a journalist and
a teacher. (Ideological foes, Hamas and Fatah, will
never come to any political agreement. Only common hate for Israel keeps them
from mutual annihilation!)

Quote(s) of the Week:

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when?” (Ethics of
the Fathers 1:14).

The northern
Syrian city of Aleppo, once a pillar of Jewish
existence
worldwide, is slowly being destroyed by the fighting that has engulfed Syria. A
Free Syrian Army rebel warned that soon “there will be nothing left to destroy
in Aleppo.”

What made Jewish
existence in Aleppo so unique and vibrant? For thousands of years, Aleppo was
an unofficial capital of the Sephardic Jewish world. Fueled by wealth from
international trade and waves of Jewish immigration, the city’s Jews sustained
a pious community revered for educational excellence and as a guardian of
traditions with roots in ancient Israel. Aleppine folklore - some even say that
one of Kind David’s generals personally laid the foundation for its great synagogue - hints at the prestige of the
city in Jewish history.

Starting in the late
10th century, Aleppo grew to serve as a passageway between the Jewish
communities of the Babylonian center and Israel. Its geographic position and
impressive sphere of influence bridged the divide from Persia to the lucrative
markets of southern Europe.

Aleppo was the center of Jewish life for many centuries.
Distinguished rabbis studied there and it was a center of significant Torah
learning. Among the reasons for Aleppo’s importance in Jewish learning is a document known
as the Aleppo Codex. It is believed that a member of the famous Ben-Asher
family wrote the Aleppo Codex over 1000 years ago. The text shows the final
vocalization and punctuation of the Biblical text. Some believe it is the Biblical text which Rambam
refers to in his HilchotSefer Torah.